1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing reduced calorie puffed snack food products, and to products produced by the process.
2. Description of the Background Art
Puffed snack food products are popular consumer items for which there exists a great demand. For example, sales of cheese puffs or curls in the United States alone amounted to approximately 320 million dollars in 1982 for all brands. There is also a tremendous consumer interest in weight control and therefore in products that provide normal eating satisfaction with significantly fewer calories.
Reduced calorie or "diet" soft drinks can be produced relatively easily by merely making substitutions for the sugar sweetener. However, in snack food products it has heretofore been thought to be impossible to achieve any significant, i.e., one-third or more, reduction in calories.
Puffed snack products are made from a batter containing meal or flour and other ingredients. The batter is cooked in a cooking extruder to a temperature and pressure at which the mixture will "puff" or expand upon reaching atmospheric pressure after extrusion. The extrusion is then cut to form collets and fried or baked to reduce the moisture content of the collets to less than about 2% by weight. The collets are usually flavored after baking or frying by being coated with a slurry containing oil and flavoring (e.g., cheese and salt) to produce the final product. One such flavored puffed snack product that is well known to consumers is "CHEETOS" brand sold by Frito-Lay, Inc., the assignee of this invention.
The calories present in puffed snack products are derived primarily from the meal or flour and oil or fat content of the snacks. It is very difficult to reduce the caloric content of fried puffed snacks because of the natural tendency for the product to absorb oil during the frying process. While baked puffed snacks are generally lower in oil content than fried puffed snacks, the caloric content of the meal or flour in the snack generally limits any further reduction in calories.
Commercially successful reduced calorie breads have been produced by replacing a portion of the grain flour therein with plain cellulose as a bulking agent. Humans cannot digest cellulose, which passes through the digestive tract without releasing any calories. Heretofore, the use of cellulose as a bulking agent in puffed snack products has not been commercially successful since plain cellulose inhibits the expansion characteristic (puffing) of the collets, and results in a final product with a coarse texture.
There is a need in the art for a process for manufacturing a reduced (by one-third or more) calorie puffed snack product with taste and texture characteristics similar to conventionally produced puffed snack products.